THE TOWNS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



283 



southern side of a small harbour. Near the sea, by the side of a large lagoon, the 

 Agricultural Society's Ground and the Race-course are situated, and at the back on the 

 mountain ridges are hundreds of small dairy-farms. A line of railway connects Illawarra 

 with the metropolis, and Wollongong now takes an active share in Sydney's milk-trade. 

 Its yearly export of butter 

 is about seven hundred 

 tons, though the generally 

 fortunate farmers are not 

 wholly exempt from the 

 droughts which afflict 

 other parts of the colony. 

 Seven miles distant, at 

 the head of Lake Illawarra, 

 is Dapto, with its old flour- 

 mill and its handsome 

 church ; and a few miles 

 farther south where the 

 mountains recede, thus 

 leaving a greater breadth 

 of rich pasture-land, lies 

 the little centre of Albion 

 Park, which has its own 

 small port. At this point 

 the lower carboniferous 

 and subcarboniferous stra- 

 ta upon which Wollon- 

 gong rests is overlaid by 

 basalt. The peaceful vil- 

 lage known as Jamberoo 

 rests snugly in a valley on 

 the right, and in front, 



about four-score miles from Sydney, is the coast's famed 

 gem, Kiama, noted for its beauty, its butter, its blue- 

 stone, and its Blow-hole. This choice spot has been 



likened to a precious emerald placed in a very rough setting, being most unlike all other 

 parts of the coast, its basaltic bluffs which overhang the ocean bearing rich herbage to 

 their extreme edges. The soil is wonderfully rich, and liberally supports its tillers, who for 

 the greater part are independent freeholders. A block of forty acres here is worth to the 

 farmer more than a square mile of ordinary country, and a railway runs almost on its 

 boundary. The trade in its bluestone, immense quantities of which are required for Sydney's 

 streets, has been to it a great support. Its dairy cattle are the best on the coast, 

 supplying two butter factories ; indeed, it was Kiama that started the first. Coal is 

 found in the district, but the seams, which crop out of the hills some miles inland, are 

 at present unworked. The harbour is very small, and when easterly gales set in 



LAKE GEORGE 



